Fifteen Ways to Save Your Family
by BookLover223
Summary: A Lance character study in 15 pieces: You aren't a prodigy nor are you the best in your generation at … well anything. You are just a boy from Cuba, lost in the universe and trying to defend your home (your family) from a threat that they do not even know exists. Hold this fact close to your chest as if it is everything. (It is).


This is set at some nebulous point in the earlier seasons. I haven't seen any of season 7 yet and took some liberties with Lance's family and background information. The writing style is based on "15 Ways to Stay Alive" by Daphne Gottlieb.

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Fifteen Ways to Save Your Family

1\. Remember who you are. You are Lance McClain, a young man (not a boy, not anymore) from Cuba who loves his family and friends. You are loud, brash, and obnoxious. You are pilot and a paladin. These things define you.

(They are not all you are)

2\. You do not always have to be nice (in fact some would say you rarely are), but you must always strive to be kind. Kindness can take many forms. Kindness is cleaning healing pods while Coran tells you about his lost homeworld. Kindness is forcing Pidge to sleep after twelve straight vargas of working on a project. It is finding something that each of your team members need to make their lives just a little bit easier and providing it regardless of whether or not they notice or care (they don't).

(You aren't always nice. A nice person wouldn't pick fights with Keith just to see the golden-child lose his composure, a nice person wouldn't feel jealous if they saw team members laughing and bonding without them, a nice person wouldn't have left their family to fight an intergalactic war without a word of warning. Being nice is not your forte. But kindness? Yeah you can do that in your sleep.)

3\. Fall in love with everything you have, with everything you are. Fall in love with planets and music, the vast endlessness of space, the humming of the castleship, and the wonders of the universe. If you fall in deep all-consuming love with everything, then you have more reasons to fight.

(Love is a light that can lead the lost through dark times and you have never known darker. If you are going to die in space (and you probably are) … well at least you'll have enjoyed it first)

4\. Hold on to the things you love. You went into space with little more than the clothes on your back and your friends at your side. If you don't hold on tight the things you love may disappear.

(Sometimes you have let them go. When it comes time to pilot Red you almost cannot bring yourself to leave Blue. It's as if losing the one constant presence in your life since that fateful night at the caves is a declaration of defeat. Blue is water and tranquility, a calming reminder of home, of a promise and a dream to one day return. Red is heat and intensity, a fire that will burn through your promises and turn your dreams to ash. Later you will realize that fire belongs in the hearth: warming, comforting, and protecting. Fire can be death and destruction, but it is also warmth and safety. Red likes paladins who rely on instinct and you have protective instincts in spades. Once you both realize this your bond will be an asset yes, but it will also feel like home.)

5\. Remember your family. Remember your parents' hugs, your little sister Rosie's laugh, your older brother Mateo's advice. Remember every detail you can about your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. Except you left them, you left them with no way of knowing that you're alive. As for forgetting … there are nights where you wake up in cold sweat realizing that you can't remember your Grandma's voice or the exact scent of your mother's favorite perfume (the one in the fancy glass bottle that you and your sisters pooled several years worth of allowances and side jobs around the barrio to surprise her with). On these nights you sit for hours mouthing stories about each of your family members in Spanish. Even if you've forgotten their faces you cannot let yourself forget their stories or the language that you share.

(And God, how must Allura and Coran feel. They are the last two people (humanoids, the mice don't count, not really) in the universe who remember Altea, who know the stories. Their language, their planet, their everything will die with them and as horrible as it is, you are immeasurably glad that you are not in their shoes)

6\. You may die out here without ever seeing your family again. Accept this fact and move on, there are more important things you need to focus on.

7\. Play the fool, the joker, the trickster. You have a strong tactical mind, but so do others. They can handle the serious discussions and planning (though you should still provide your input). What they cannot do is bring levity to the situation. It can be easy to forget of you are barley more than kids (even Shiro (who has his own set of problems) is younger than any commander at the Garrison and Allura is younger than any general (not counting the time she spent frozen as the universe collapsed around her), and more importantly that you're only human (in the metaphorical way not literally because well aliens). Your team cannot be on alert all of the time, it wouldn't be healthy and it wouldn't be right. A well-timed joke here and a play to grab attention there are sometimes all that is needed to bring smiles, however fleeting to their faces. And if sometimes it makes you look like an idiot or a fool … well its worth it to keep the others sane.

8\. You are a defender and a protector. Act like it.

(You have always been these things long before an ancient blue lion chose you to do the same for the universe. You are tío Lance and you are an older brother, you've always felt the instinctive need to protect the children in your family. You were their role model, their example of right and wrong (maybe you still are, but looking up to your living relative is much different than looking up to dead ones and let's face it you've been missing for so long that you might as well be dead to them). Your team is not the same as your family, but they're the closest thing you can get. You should still afford them the same attitudes and protections as your blood family).

9\. Know your weaknesses. You are loud and impulsive. You can be rash and prone to jealousy. Worst of all, you know how to hold a grudge. Acknowledge these things and watch out for them. In a war any weakness can kill you and it is not often that you feel strong.

(You had to work hard to get into the Garrison. Flying has always made you feel at home, but the math and science portions of the entry exam nearly bested you. Once you got there you were surrounded by the best and brightest and had to work just as hard to keep up. That's why the one hotshot pilot in your class dug so far under your skin. That loner with his stupid hair didn't attend any study sessions, didn't talk to people, didn't _try_ and he somehow made it to the top of the class. One day after the simulator (after Iverson yelling at you) you swallow your pride and ask him for help. He laughs and blows you off. That night you see him walking with Takashi Shirogane of all people, your hero, and both are laughing in a way that makes you miss your siblings. That is the moment you declare him your rival, that you decide to beat him. He washes out before you get the chance (a year later he asks you for your name and a little piece of you dies because apparently you are just that forgettable)).

10\. Embrace the child you once were. The one who snuck out to Varadero beach at night and watched the stars. The one who dreamed of one day touching them. You were the child who hung posters of images from the Hubble and Web telescopes. When they announced the Kerberos mission you read everything released to the public and bought posters of the crew for your room (Something that Shiro, Matt, and Pidge must absolutely never find out). You used to dream of touching the stars and now you're living among them. Stop and take the time to appreciate this, marvel at how amazing it is … when you're not, you know, about to die (which happens more than you'd like to think about).

11\. Lock this child away, but do not throw away the key. During strategy meetings, during battles, during the times when it really counts you must pretend that this child never existed. There is no place in this war for little boys who long for the ocean and wish to explore space rather than shoot their way through it. This war is no place for a dreamer, but in the moments in between let this boy out. In between battles and training sessions people need to decompress. Wonder and childish antics may be the exact things needed to bring levity to an otherwise tense atmosphere. Let the boy make jokes, even at your own expense, as long as it gives the others something to laugh about.

(And when you're alone. When everyone else has gone to sleep bring that little boy to the observatory deck and let him see the stars and planets that he's always dreamed of, no longer out of reach (though home is).)

12\. Lie to others but not yourself. You do not care about the universe as a whole, not really. You care about the things and people at the center of _your_ universe. Your family has always been the priority, then Hunk came in seamlessly as though he'd always been there. Pidge Gunderson shouldn't have been a priority but he was a member of your squad, he was yours which made him a priority (Pidge Gunderson being Katie Holt didn't change much, it just gave you the same sinking feeling you got when you realized exactly how smart little Rosie is, an overwhelming sense of _I'm in trouble with this one_ ). Through no attempt of your own your priorities expanded to Shiro, Allura, and Coran then eventually (and grudgingly) Keith. Little by little, battle by battle these strangers became your people. If it came down to the Universe or your people … well you know what you'd choose.

(You also know that they'd never forgive you, but at least they'd be alive to hold that grudge)

13\. Keep your friends close and your enemies as far away as possible (although preferable visible through the scope of your gun).

14\. Do not allow yourself to think of causalities. This is war, more to the point this is a war that has been going on for ten thousand years (You think of the world wars. The ones once called by names like The Great War and The War to End All Wars. Entire nations of people attempting to kill their own citizens and each other and yet those massive casualties will never come close to even a fraction of the lives lost to the Galra. The thought is staggering). The total amount of lives lost are uncountable and incomprehensible. There will be death and destruction, minimize these where you can but do not dwell on it when you cannot. It will break you.

(The first time you see that the Galra soldier you shot (a perfect shot between the eyes, a flare of satisfaction, and a body twitching on the dry ground of a planet that you will not remember the name of in a month) was not a robot your hands begin to shake. The shaking will persist throughout the rest of the battle and the entirety of the next day. You imagine what your mother would say about you (her sweet boy) if she could see the stains on your hands. You sit in the shower for hours like Lady Macbeth trying to wash non-existent blood off your hands _out damned spot, out_ until Hunk comes to retrieve you for what passes for dinner these days. Despite all of this you know that you will take (and make) the same shot again and again. Yes, a life will be lost but it will be in defense of planets and the universe. This is a war and you will do what you have to in order to protect your team (your family). Even if each successful shot leaves you horrified and irreparably changed.)

15\. You aren't a prodigy nor are you the best in your generation at … well anything. You are just a boy from Cuba, lost in the universe and trying to defend your home (your family) from a threat that they do not even know exists. Hold this fact close to your chest as if it is everything.

(It is. Ordinary people are capable of doing the most extraordinary things when family is on the line)

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Has anyone else listened to Proud Corazón from Coco and thought about Lance, because I have and it fits in a super sad way.

Tell me what you think

~BL223


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